Nick Toczek
VIBRATING HOTEL ROOM, WEMBLEY
From underground we’ re rattled when Successive tube trains snake
And I have been in rooms like these And I have felt them shake
In Zante while on holiday – A genuine earthquake
In shops on streets where laden trucks Accelerate or brake
In Hong Kong two score floors from earth When wind shook me awake
And when men drilled and dug our street With drain repairs to make
In halls when choired voices sang Jerusalem by Blake
In Derry when that bomb went off To prove God’ s peace was fake
And during demolition when The walls and ceilings flake
When sex between the two of us Set ripples on love’ s lake
When words were shouted, doors were slammed With lies and truths at stake
When, while one slept, the other wept For small betrayal’ s sake
And, older since, we wear the scars And often feel them ache
With hearts once clear as window-glass Now somehow grown opaque
And we’ ll return to rooms like these And then, with grief, they’ ll shake